Earth Sciences Pakistan (Jan 2017)
QUANTIFICATION OF CO2 EMISSIONS FROM VEHICLES AND POSSIBLE REMEDIAL STRATEGIES IN FAISALABAD CITY
Abstract
Vehicular emissions pose a negative impact on the environment. Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to global warming which result due to greenhouse effect. The aim of this study is to quantify the CO2 emissions from transportation sector and determine the amount of trees required for compensating that quantified emissions. Road transport sector causes more urban airborne pollution than any other single human activity. Faisalabad is 3rd largest city of Pakistan where the situation is getting alarming due to industrial explosion, population growth and increasing high volume of traffic and it was selected for quantification of CO2. The practical application of emission could be seen last winter in a form of smog and it affected the visibility as well as causing irritation problem in eyes and nose. The study was carried out based on the emission factors of petrol and diesel i.e. 2.3 kg/L and 2.7 kg/L respectively. After collecting vehicular data, distances w.r.t vehicles type and fuels w.r.t distances were determined .With application of emission factors calculations on various amount of fuel used by various vehicles the summation of all emissions were determined. The concentration of CO2 emissions are 601.96 tons minimum, 894.4 tons averagely and 1190.23 tons maximum respectively. As our whole system of transportation is based on fossil fuel and complete shifting to clean fuel is time consuming and difficult so, plantation is the natural and more effective way of cleaning our air because they are natural eaters of CO2. To compensate the maximum emissions, it requires 20million of plantations per year.
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